Mechanization (2014)

This work is inspired by an article written by Vannevar Bush, an American engineer, inventor, and scientist, which first appeared in The Atlantic in 1945. In it, Bush predicts many modern day technologies such as personal computing, hypertext, the internet, and Wikipedia (interconnected, searchable encyclopedias). Bush also discusses his concerns with the direction of scientific efforts towards destruction, rather than understanding and suggests a machine, which he called the Memex, that would combine lower level technologies to achieve a higher level of organized knowledge.

The following quote from As We May Think is the basis for this work:

Much needs to occur, however, between the collection of data and observations, the extraction of parallel material from the existing record, and the final insertion of new material into the general body of the common record. For mature thought there is no mechanical substitute. But creative thought and essentially repetitive thought are very different things. For the latter there are, and may be, powerful mechanical aids.

Mechanization was commissioned by the Omojo Percussion Duo and is dedicated their members, Oliver Molina and Joe Moore.

The below live recording is from the premiere performance on March 20, 2014: